Saturday, September 18, 2004

Bush Treated for Depression


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.



Phyllos Gardner forwards this article with the comment: "- I certainly do not have verification of this, but it would be extremely problematic if true". It is titled "Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior", by Teresa Hampton Editor, Capitol Hill Blue (7/28/ 04).

President George W. Bush is taking powerful antidepressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned. The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President's mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately. "It's a double-edged sword," says one aide. "We can't have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally." Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay. "Keep those motherfuckers away from me," he screamed at an aide backstage. "If you can't, I'll find someone who can."

Bush's mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President's wide mood swings and obscene outbursts, "untreated alcoholic" whose "lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad" showcase Bush's instabilities. "I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed," Dr. Frank said. "He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated."

Dr. Frank's conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School. The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas > governor and his first campaign for President. "President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies," Dr. Frank adds. The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article. Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are "powerful medications" designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President's annual physical, details of the President's health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.

Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush's health, eitherphysical or mental, is similar to Ronald Reagan's second term when aides managed to conceal the President's increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of Alzheimer's Disease. It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon's final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn't emerge until after Nixon left office.One long-time GOP political consultant who - for obvious reasons - asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush. "We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is sick," he says sadly. "That's not good for my candidates, it's not good for the party and it's certainly not good for the country."

RH: We ran a long posting about Nixon's problems. The official line is that Bush long ago became a teetotaler. As so often, we need the facts, without any distortion through a political prism. I am copying this to Dr.Irvin Yalom in the hope that he may have a comment. WAISer Dr. Herbert Abrams is is an internationally known specialist on the health of US presidents. I hope he will comment.

On the topic that Ms. Gardner brings forth, she and the rest of the WAISers should be aware that Capital Hill Blue is published online “for entertainment only” according to their website that claims that no one with the website is paid a salary, and the articles are written by who ever shows up at the office on any given day. The “owner” of the site, Doug Thompson, invites ANYONE to write articles for his various sites, knowing there will be no pay for the article. No one checks facts, period. Their motto is that “no one’s freedom or property is safe while Congress is in session.”

One of Thompson’s own stories declares that the USA is “Home of the bigot and land of the afraid.”

Source: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=15&num=1918

Thompson also neglects to reveal that he is a former Press Secretary to at least three Democratic Congressmen.

The bottom line? Anything from Capital Hill Blue is suspect and lacks any level of responsibility and credibility.

Since the online gossip column, Capital Hill Blue, mentions Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School, I can assume that Professor Hilton will follow up with Dr. Yalom for at least a bit of verification.

Phyllis Gardner forwarded an article describing President Bush as a half-crazy drunkard under medical treatment. Randy Black says: "She and the rest of the WAISers should be aware that Capital Hill Blue is published online “for entertainment only” according to their website, that claims that no one with the website is paid a salary, and that the articles are written by whoever shows up at the office on any given day. The “owner” of the site, Doug Thompson, invites ANYONE to write articles for his various sites, knowing there will be no pay for the article. No one checks facts, period. Their motto is that “no one’s freedom or property is safe while Congress is in session.” One of Thompson’s own stories declares that the USA is “Home of the bigot and land of the afraid.”
Source: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=15&num=1918
Thompson also neglects to reveal that he is a former Press Secretary to at least three Democratic Congressmen.
The bottom line? Anything from Capital Hill Blue is suspect and lacks any level of responsibility and credibility.
Since the online gossip column, Capital Hill Blue, mentions Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School, I can assume that Professor Hilton will follow up with Dr. Yalom for at least a bit of verification".

RH: I forwarded the piece to Dr. Yalom with a request for his comments. If In receive a reply I will post it. Another psychiatrist, Daryl DeBell.writes: "I believe President Bush is a perfect example of the Peter principle; he has advanced to the level of his incompetence, but I strongly object to the innuendo and tone of the article. Dr. Frank was never identified, and I am surprised and disappointed that Dr. Yalom made his comments. The phrase "powerful antidepressant drugs" is used pejoratively, and in any case they are not properly used to control behavior or paranoia. Altogether, the whole thing smells. Nixon was indeed a pathological narcissist. Bush may be bullheaded and relatively stupid, but, as much as I would like to be able to, I cannot see him as a pathological narcissist or clinically paranoid. The evidences of his sadism are quite disturbing but not surprising. His losing his temper when badgered by reporters is neither surprising nor pathological. If the article has any validity, the Republican moguls who know about it are seriously remiss in not releasing the information and finding a new candidate".

RH: Mary Huyck and others have written in similar vein. If the account is totally fictitious, it is like some joker crying "Fire!!" in a crowded theater. This brings me back to one of my main themes: The age of liberty should end and be replaced with responsible freedom. The Statue of Liberty was reopened today. At the ceremony there was the usual boasting about our freedom of speech and of the press, but no mention of responsible freedom. Conservative John Leo claims that bloggers make up for the deficiencies of the press, but, while it is true that they bring out things the press fails to mention, it is also clear that the internet can me used to spread all kinds of malicious rumors, a kind of poisoned spam . If the article is simply malicious lies, there should be some way of suing the offenders, but that takes us back to a problem we have discussed before: public figures cannot sue for libel. It is possible that there is a grain of truth in the article.
Speaking of 9/11, Nushin Namazi praises President Bush for not allowing it to get his pet goat. Here is an excerpt of her long eulogy of him: "In this instance, George Bush was a good role model for all in times of crisis!! . After he left, he showed the world that he keeps his word, and, unlike the Europeans who lack principles and backbone, George Bush with the help of the American military terminated a corrupt, murderous dictator --Saddam and his regime! One of the things i respect most about George W. Bush is his utmost respect for people of all nations and all religions. He is very careful to call the terrorists: "international terrorists", unlike the press and other media pundits who call them "Islamic terrorists". Do not this behavior and action not make George W. Bush one of the truly culturally sensitive and humane leaders of our time?"

Tom Moore rejects Nushin Namazi's use of Bush's pet goat story to eulogize his humanity: "If George Bush is such a respecter of all people, how come virtually the whole world dislikes him and is hoping that he will lose the election?"


Randy Black rejects Tom Moore’s statement about the worldwide unpopularity of President Bush: "Bush does not have the same PR firm that Bill Clinton employed and continues to employ. Fleishman-Hillard, the world’s largest public relations firm, is the likely recipient of the Bill Clinton account that is likely worth $100,000 per month to the firm for their services. I figure they’re doing Bill since they also have his former Secretary of Commerce, Mickey Kantor, his chief of staff Leon Panetta and his Defense Secretary William Cohen on their roster (and Republican Newt Gingrich). Make no mistake about it, Clinton has a PR firm ensuring that his image, presence and quotations remain on the front pages of the world’s publications, and on television. Anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves" RH: "Likely", "I figure". Randy must be guessing. We are fooling ourselves if we think that the hostility to Bush is due to his failure to hire the right PR firm. Every US embassy in the world does PR work for him.

Ronald Hilton -



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

RUMSFELD MISLEADS ON IRAQI SECURITY FORCES


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.



The ability of U.S. forces to exit Iraq is
contingent on the training of Iraqi forces that can provide
for their own security. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld has seriously misled the American people
about the number of Iraqis that have been trained.

In February, Rumsfeld touted the large number of
Iraqis serving in security forces that had completed
training. Rumsfeld said, "there are over 210,000
Iraqis serving in the security forces. That is an
amazing accomplishment. There are a number of
thousands more that are currently in training."[1]
Rumsfeld's statement was grossly inaccurate. On Tuesday,
Rumsfeld admitted, "we're training up their security
forces now...about 105,000 are now properly trained
and equipped."[2]

But never fear. Rumsfeld now promises that "between
now and the end of the year into mid-'05...that
number then will go up -- back up over 200,000."[3]

Sources:

1. "More Cooperation Needed to Secure Iraq Borders,
Rumsfeld Says," The Coalition Provisional
Authority, 2/23/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=56683
.
2. "Secretary Rumsfeld Media Availability at Ft.
Leonard Wood, Mo.," U.S. Department of Defense,
9/14/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=56684.
3. "Defense Department Briefing with Secretary
Rumsfeld," U.S. Department of Defense, 9/07/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=56685.




MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Friday, September 17, 2004

House GOP Blocks Effort to Obtain Cheney Energy Task Force Data


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.



Environmental and government watchdog groups reacted angrily Thursday to a House committee vote rejecting a resolution that would have directed the Bush administration to release documents and information surrounding Vice President Dick Cheney's secret Energy Task Force meetings.


"The American people have a right to know what went on behind closed doors," Anna Aurilio, legislative director for U.S. PIRG, told BushGreenwatch. "We are extremely disappointed that the House committee voted to keep the public in the dark about the Bush administration's secret meetings with big corporations."


The Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Wednesday against a "resolution of inquiry" that called upon the White House to release the names and affiliations of anyone who met with Vice President Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group, which developed President Bush's energy plan. The task force plan provided the basis for the administration's energy bill, which is currently stalled in the Senate.


Environmental and government watchdog groups have been fighting to obtain information about individuals and corporations that may have influenced the administration's energy policy since the draft plan was released in May 2001. The groups believe the oil, gas, nuclear and coal industries exerted undue influence over the development of the White House plan. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Cheney does not have to release any information until a lower court reviews the case.


But Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), introduced a resolution calling upon the administration to release the information. The resolution failed by a 30-22 party-line vote after committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) blocked Democrats from holding debate on the issue.


"I don't think this is the last word," said Rick Blum, coordinator of openthegovernment.org, a coalition of groups supporting open government. "The court case is still going forward. I think that finding out who took part in the meetings will happen eventually."


Others said that Americans shouldn't have to fight for what should be public information to begin with.


"It shouldn't take an act of Congress to force the White House to share information with the public about the public's business," Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Senior Attorney Sharon Buccino told BushGreenwatch. "The White House's dirty secrets about Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force are not sensitive security information, but rather information critical to the national debate on energy policy. Citizens have a right to know about how decisions were made on policies that affect our quality of life and America's energy security."



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Question: How do you tell the difference between Democrats, Republicans and Southern Republicans?


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

The answer can be found by posing the following question:

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges. You are carrying a Glock .40, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.

What do you do?

Answer in the Extended Section...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Democrat's Answer

Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!

Does the man look poor or Oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it? Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children? Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? Should I call 9-1-1? Why is this street so deserted? We need to raise taxes, have a paint and weed day and make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.

This is all so confusing!

I need to debate this with some friends for a few days and try to come to a consensus.

Republican's Answer

BANG!

Southern Republican's Answer

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

*click*

Daughter: "Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips?




MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Watch Bill Moyers' NOW on PBS on Friday evenings


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

NOW with Bill Moyers
Friday, September 17 at 9PM on PBS
(Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)

==================================================================
This week on a NOW:

* Citizen GI blues. With more and more National
Guard troops being
shipped overseas to fight, David Brancaccio looks
at how their families
and communities are also paying a price in THE CALL
TO WAR.
* Black eye? Bill Moyers talks to NOW's analysts
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
and Kevin Phillips about the flap over CBS and what
it says about the
volatile mix of media and politics.
* In country. After watching the Pentagon burn on
9/11 Richard Murphy
was on a mission-he joined the Army Reserves and
then was sent to Iraq.
After 15 months on the ground, what does he say
about the mission now?
A David Brancaccio Interview.
* Things are heating up. Bill Moyers profiles an
experiment in the
Rocky Mountains, giving us a glimpse into the
future if global warming
goes unchecked in WARMER AND WARMER.

===================================================================
THE CALL TO WAR

From cities and towns across America, local
National Guard units are
being called to duty in extraordinary numbers and
sent overseas to fight
in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Now,
governors from several states
have started to speak out, worried that these
citizen-soldiers are
shouldering too much of today's military burden at
the expense of their
families and communities. David Brancaccio travels
to Iowa, which in
the last two years has experienced the largest
National Guard
mobilization since World War II, to uncover the
impact of war on
small-town America, where workers and community
leaders are being
uprooted, and families are being torn apart for
conflicts abroad. The
report includes the poignant story of a married
couple struggling with
leaving their children behind as they prepare to
ship out.

===================================================================
KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON AND KEVIN PHILLIPS

The row over the authenticity of documents
unearthed by 60 MINUTES' Dan
Rather about President Bush's National Guard
service continues as CBS
blinked this week after squaring off with critics.
Is a detrimental mix
of media and politics burying the real issues
facing America? Bill
Moyers gets the perspectives of NOW's regular
analysts, media expert
Kathleen Hall Jamieson and author Kevin Phillips.

===================================================================
RICHARD MURPHY

Less than a week after watching the Pentagon burn
from his Washington,
DC apartment window, Richard Murphy was compelled
to serve his country
and set out to join the Army Reserves. In February
2003, as an MP,
Murphy was on his way to Iraq. His tour saw stints
in combat patrols,
as a police academy trainer, as a machine gunner,
and as a member of a
military police brigade assigned to Abu Ghraib
prison. What he saw in
Iraq changed him. And while Murphy still believes
in the mission, David
Brancaccio sits down with him to find out if what
he saw on the ground
has changed his view of the war.

===================================================================
WARMER AND WARMER

NOW gives viewers an intimate look at how global
warming may affect one
of the most beautiful areas of America--the high
meadows of the Rocky
Mountains. Take a step into what may be a
frightening future as the
earth's temperature continues to rise in this
profile of UC Berkeley
scientist John Harte, who has been simulating
higher temperatures in the
Rocky Mountains to gauge what some extraordinary
vistas may look like if
global warming continues at its predicted pace.

===================================================================
NOW WITH BILL MOYERS continues online at PBS.org
(www.pbs.org/now). Log
on to the site to learn more about the challenges
facing National Guard
men and women today - including the Stop Loss
policy and healthcare
funding for National Guard and Army Reserve
families; to find out where
your local unit is deployed with our National Guard
Resource Map; to get
a history of America's citizen soldiers; to explore
both sides of the
climate change debate; to read a Q & A with UC
Berkeley scientist John
Harte; to see where the candidates stand on global
warming; and more.

Also, respond to the NOW Online's Quote of the Week
at
http://www.pbs.org/now/php/quotes.php

===================================================================
Hosted by Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio, NOW has
been called "...one
of the last bastions of serious journalism on TV"
by the Austin-American
Statesmen and "...public television at its best" by
the Philadelphia
Inquirer. Each week, the series sheds light on a
wide range of issues
confronting the nation and explores American
democracy and culture
through investigative reporting and interviews with
major authors,
leading thinkers, and artists.

To
subscribe or
unsubscribe from the weekly Public Affairs
Television newsletter, visit
www.pbs.org/now/newsletter.html.


MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

This is what happens to you when Big International Co.s & the Fed. Gov get together


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

http://workingamerica.org/
When you get there click on Col. 3's "Job Tracker's" "Search by Zip" or "Search by Company" or "Search by Industry".Lo

CNN's Lou Dubb's speaks very well of the site.

Your not going to like what you going to see. But, remember that Muli-national Corps. want to have cost of China and sell at American prices and this and passed White houses have helped this to come to be. Our Goverment is working for those who gave them the most Dollars.

The sites Col. 2 "Learn More" will tell you how, Every day in America, 85,444 people lose their jobs. And read on other issues like, Overtime Pay, Health Care, Retirement, Education, Unemployment, and Rights@Work. Take back the power that you gave the ones you trusted because they know you gave them the power and they think you were stupid to do it and you should be screwed.

From the "ABOUT US" part of the site: WORKING AMERICA is people like you—working women and men, retirees, people who want to set America’s priorities straight.

WORKING AMERICA, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is a powerful force for working people. With the combined strength of 13 million union men and women and millions of nonunion workers who share common challenges and goals, we fight in communities, states and nationally for what really matters—good jobs, affordable health care, world-class education, secure retirements, real homeland security and more.

And we work against wrong-headed priorities favoring the rich and corporate special interests over America’s well-being.


WORKING AMERICA uses professional research, communication, education, canvassing, lobbying and community organizing to demand that politicians address the priorities that matter most to working people—not just wealthy special interests. Make a difference for your community, for America and for your working family.

Take back your lives...

MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Thursday, September 16, 2004

REPORT SHOWS CHENEY WENT ABROAD TO ATTACK AMERICA


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

Vice President Cheney has regularly attacked the
national security
credentials of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), calling him
weak on terrorism. But
according to a new report, it was Cheney who
actually did business with
terrorist countries and traveled abroad to attack
America's
counter-terrorism efforts in the 1990s.

As The American Prospect documents, Cheney oversaw
Halliburton's effort to
do business with Iraq and Iran in the 1990s,
despite American sanctions
against those countries. During his time as CEO, he
oversaw Halliburton's
$73 million worth of business with Saddam
Hussein.[1] This, despite his
claim that he had imposed a "firm policy"[2] of not
doing business with
Iraq. Similarly, details of Halliburton's Iran
business during Cheney's
tenure was so egregious, it is being investigated
by authorities today.[3]
Halliburton today admits one of its subsidiaries
still "performs between $30
[million] and $40 million annually in oilfield
service work in Iran."[4]

On top of evading U.S. sanctions laws against
terrorist countries, Cheney
actually attacked the U.S. government in a series
of trips abroad, demanding
sanctions be lifted on terrorist countries so he
could do business with
them. In trips to Malaysia and Canada, for
instance, he insisted the Clinton
administration lift sanctions on Iran, despite that
country being listed by
the U.S. State Department as a state-sponsor of
terrorism.[5]

You can see the full American Prospect piece at
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55998.


Sources:

1. "The Greed Factor," The American Prospect,
9/15/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55998.
2. "Firm's Iraq Deals Greater Than Cheney Has
Said," Washington Post,
6/23/01,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55999.
3. "Halliburton probed over Iran ties," CNN.com,
7/20/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=56000.
4. "Halliburton's Work in Iran Stirs Democrats,"
Washington Post, 7/21/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=56001.
5. Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism, U.S.
Department of State, 4/30/01,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=56002.



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Nader News


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

Access to health care should be treated as a basic human right. Yet, the privatized health industry imposes such strict cost barriers to meaningful coverage that over 44 million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever, and tens of millions more are underinsured. We spend far more on health care per capita than any other country but rank only 37th among nations in quality of health care provided. Ours is the only industrialized country whose citizens cannot walk into a doctor's office regardless of employment or socioeconomic status and receive healthcare. The fact that our nation’s health care system is entrusted to profit-minded private corporations, particularly the unnecesary private health industry, is at once inhumane and an invitation to catastrophe.

The Nader/Camejo campaign calls for replacing our fragmented, market-based system with a single-payer health plan - whereby the government finances health care but keeps delivery in the hands of private non-profits, allowing patients free choice of doctors and hospitals. Single-payer operates according to a simple principle: that Americans need never be deprived of access to quality health care. More than 18,000 Americans, many of whom do without treatment for fear of prohibitive costs, die every year for lack of adequate health coverage, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Common objections to single-payer complain that people will "abuse the system" and that a government-funded system will entail longer waits for specialized care. The objections are refuted by efficient and economical nationally-funded plans all over the industrialized world. In fact, universal access will allow more people to go to the doctor more often, but that doesn't constitute "abuse." When Americans have a health care system that doesn't discriminate against them, odds are they won’t wait as long to get treatment, which translates to more preventive care for more people. There will, in turn, be less demand for costly specialized care.

The number of Americans who recognize our common stake in further investigation of universal health care is growing, and we’ve only scratched the surface. We’re all tasked with further exploration. Does Jane Doe deserve to see a doctor any less than John CEO? Who is fighting to make health care for all a priority in the political arena?


Theresa Amato
Campaign Manager





MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Judge Finds Bush Commerce Department Put Politics Over Science in "Dolphin Safe" Tuna Actions


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.



A federal judge has issued a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration by ruling that the Commerce Department allowed politics, not science, to determine whether to relax the "dolphin safe" label for tuna sold in the U.S.


In a harshly worded opinion, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson last month overturned an earlier Commerce Department finding that dolphins were not harmed by Mexican tuna boats when they encircled schools of tuna with purse seine nets.


The Commerce finding would have opened the way for the Mexican tuna industry to sell its catch in the U.S. and label it 'dolphin safe', despite the killing of thousands of dolphins annually by the fishery. At the same time, Judge Henderson commended the government's own scientists, who had argued that purse seine fishing was depleting dolphin populations.


"It appears that while the scientists at [National Marine Fisheries Service] undertook their research mission extremely seriously, at the end of the day, intense pressures ... led to a policy driven more by politics than science," Henderson wrote. "Indeed the record reflects an agency that gave short shrift to the conclusions of its own scientists, dragged its feet on crucial research, and ...ignored the explicit warning of the appellate court not to invoke 'insufficient evidence' as a justification for its finding."


In fact, Henderson wrote, "...this court has never, in its 24 years, reviewed a record of agency action that contained such a compelling portrait of political meddling."


"Judge Henderson's ruling exposes the Bush administration's deceit in ignoring its own scientists...to allow dolphin-deadly tuna back into the U.S. with a phony label," said David Phillips, director of the Earth Island Institute, which brought the lawsuit along with eight other ogranizations. "Secret court documents proved that the government knew all along that netting dolphins was jeopardizing their survival." [1]


The purse seine fishing method is widely used by tuna boats from Mexico, Venezuela, and Ecuador, which have been lobbying for years to gain entry to the lucrative U.S. tuna market. In December 2002, Commerce Department Secretary Donald Evans ruled that conclusive scientific evidence showing that dolphins were being killed in purse seine nets was lacking, despite the findings of the Department's own scientists.


Commerce Secretary Evans' claim of insufficient scientific evidence was undermined by Earth Island's discovery that some 300 government memos had been withheld from the court record.


The memos revealed that U.S. agencies' biologists knew that dolphin populations were not recovering, due to tuna fishing practices. The documents also revealed intense pressure from the U.S. Department of State, Mexico, and other tuna fishing nations to ignore the scientific evidence. [2]


"The Bush administration went to amazing lengths to prevent Earth Island and the court from obtaining these damaging revelations," said Phillips.



###

SOURCES:
[1] Earth Island press release, Aug. 9, 2004.
[2] Ibid.




MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib. From The Annals of National Security


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

THE GRAY ZONE
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
Issue of 2004-05-24
Posted 2004-05-15
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.

According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.

Rumsfeld, during appearances last week before Congress to testify about Abu Ghraib, was precluded by law from explicitly mentioning highly secret matters in an unclassified session. But he conveyed the message that he was telling the public all that he knew about the story. He said, “Any suggestion that there is not a full, deep awareness of what has happened, and the damage it has done, I think, would be a misunderstanding.” The senior C.I.A. official, asked about Rumsfeld’s testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, “Some people think you can bullshit anyone.”

The Abu Ghraib story began, in a sense, just weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks, with the American bombing of Afghanistan. Almost from the start, the Administration’s search for Al Qaeda members in the war zone, and its worldwide search for terrorists, came up against major command-and-control problems. For example, combat forces that had Al Qaeda targets in sight had to obtain legal clearance before firing on them. On October 7th, the night the bombing began, an unmanned Predator aircraft tracked an automobile convoy that, American intelligence believed, contained Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader. A lawyer on duty at the United States Central Command headquarters, in Tampa, Florida, refused to authorize a strike. By the time an attack was approved, the target was out of reach. Rumsfeld was apoplectic over what he saw as a self-defeating hesitation to attack that was due to political correctness. One officer described him to me that fall as “kicking a lot of glass and breaking doors.” In November, the Washington Post reported that, as many as ten times since early October, Air Force pilots believed they’d had senior Al Qaeda and Taliban members in their sights but had been unable to act in time because of legalistic hurdles. There were similar problems throughout the world, as American Special Forces units seeking to move quickly against suspected terrorist cells were compelled to get prior approval from local American ambassadors and brief their superiors in the chain of command.

Rumsfeld reacted in his usual direct fashion: he authorized the establishment of a highly secret program that was given blanket advance approval to kill or capture and, if possible, interrogate “high value” targets in the Bush Administration’s war on terror. A special-access program, or sap—subject to the Defense Department’s most stringent level of security—was set up, with an office in a secure area of the Pentagon. The program would recruit operatives and acquire the necessary equipment, including aircraft, and would keep its activities under wraps. America’s most successful intelligence operations during the Cold War had been saps, including the Navy’s submarine penetration of underwater cables used by the Soviet high command and construction of the Air Force’s stealth bomber. All the so-called “black” programs had one element in common: the Secretary of Defense, or his deputy, had to conclude that the normal military classification restraints did not provide enough security.

“Rumsfeld’s goal was to get a capability in place to take on a high-value target—a standup group to hit quickly,” a former high-level intelligence official told me. “He got all the agencies together—the C.I.A. and the N.S.A.—to get pre-approval in place. Just say the code word and go.” The operation had across-the-board approval from Rumsfeld and from Condoleezza Rice, the national-security adviser. President Bush was informed of the existence of the program, the former intelligence official said.



The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly trained commandos and operatives from America’s élite forces—Navy seals, the Army’s Delta Force, and the C.I.A.’s paramilitary experts. They also asked some basic questions: “Do the people working the problem have to use aliases? Yes. Do we need dead drops for the mail? Yes. No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress.”

In theory, the operation enabled the Bush Administration to respond immediately to time-sensitive intelligence: commandos crossed borders without visas and could interrogate terrorism suspects deemed too important for transfer to the military’s facilities at Guantánamo, Cuba. They carried out instant interrogations—using force if necessary—at secret C.I.A. detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the sap command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.

Fewer than two hundred operatives and officials, including Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were “completely read into the program,” the former intelligence official said. The goal was to keep the operation protected. “We’re not going to read more people than necessary into our heart of darkness,” he said. “The rules are ‘Grab whom you must. Do what you want.’”

One Pentagon official who was deeply involved in the program was Stephen Cambone, who was named Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in March, 2003. The office was new; it was created as part of Rumsfeld’s reorganization of the Pentagon. Cambone was unpopular among military and civilian intelligence bureaucrats in the Pentagon, essentially because he had little experience in running intelligence programs, though in 1998 he had served as staff director for a committee, headed by Rumsfeld, that warned of an emerging ballistic-missile threat to the United States. He was known instead for his closeness to Rumsfeld. “Remember Henry II—‘Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?’” the senior C.I.A. official said to me, with a laugh, last week. “Whatever Rumsfeld whimsically says, Cambone will do ten times that much.”

Cambone was a strong advocate for war against Iraq. He shared Rumsfeld’s disdain for the analysis and assessments proffered by the C.I.A., viewing them as too cautious, and chafed, as did Rumsfeld, at the C.I.A.’s inability, before the Iraq war, to state conclusively that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction. Cambone’s military assistant, Army Lieutenant General William G. (Jerry) Boykin, was also controversial. Last fall, he generated unwanted headlines after it was reported that, in a speech at an Oregon church, he equated the Muslim world with Satan.

Early in his tenure, Cambone provoked a bureaucratic battle within the Pentagon by insisting that he be given control of all special-access programs that were relevant to the war on terror. Those programs, which had been viewed by many in the Pentagon as sacrosanct, were monitored by Kenneth deGraffenreid, who had experience in counter-intelligence programs. Cambone got control, and deGraffenreid subsequently left the Pentagon. Asked for comment on this story, a Pentagon spokesman said, “I will not discuss any covert programs; however, Dr. Cambone did not assume his position as the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence until March 7, 2003, and had no involvement in the decision-making process regarding interrogation procedures in Iraq or anywhere else.”

In mid-2003, the special-access program was regarded in the Pentagon as one of the success stories of the war on terror. “It was an active program,” the former intelligence official told me. “It’s been the most important capability we have for dealing with an imminent threat. If we discover where Osama bin Laden is, we can get him. And we can remove an existing threat with a real capability to hit the United States—and do so without visibility.” Some of its methods were troubling and could not bear close scrutiny, however.

By then, the war in Iraq had begun. The sap was involved in some assignments in Iraq, the former official said. C.I.A. and other American Special Forces operatives secretly teamed up to hunt for Saddam Hussein and—without success—for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. But they weren’t able to stop the evolving insurgency.



In the first months after the fall of Baghdad, Rumsfeld and his aides still had a limited view of the insurgency, seeing it as little more than the work of Baathist “dead-enders,” criminal gangs, and foreign terrorists who were Al Qaeda followers. The Administration measured its success in the war by how many of those on its list of the fifty-five most wanted members of the old regime—reproduced on playing cards—had been captured. Then, in August, 2003, terror bombings in Baghdad hit the Jordanian Embassy, killing nineteen people, and the United Nations headquarters, killing twenty-three people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the U.N. mission. On August 25th, less than a week after the U.N. bombing, Rumsfeld acknowledged, in a talk before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, that “the dead-enders are still with us.” He went on, “There are some today who are surprised that there are still pockets of resistance in Iraq, and they suggest that this represents some sort of failure on the part of the Coalition. But this is not the case.” Rumsfeld compared the insurgents with those true believers who “fought on during and after the defeat of the Nazi regime in Germany.” A few weeks later—and five months after the fall of Baghdad—the Defense Secretary declared,“It is, in my view, better to be dealing with terrorists in Iraq than in the United States.”

Inside the Pentagon, there was a growing realization that the war was going badly. The increasingly beleaguered and baffled Army leadership was telling reporters that the insurgents consisted of five thousand Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein. “When you understand that they’re organized in a cellular structure,” General John Abizaid, the head of the Central Command, declared, “that . . . they have access to a lot of money and a lot of ammunition, you’ll understand how dangerous they are.”

The American military and intelligence communities were having little success in penetrating the insurgency. One internal report prepared for the U.S. military, made available to me, concluded that the insurgents’“strategic and operational intelligence has proven to be quite good.” According to the study:

Their ability to attack convoys, other vulnerable targets and particular individuals has been the result of painstaking surveillance and reconnaissance. Inside information has been passed on to insurgent cells about convoy/troop movements and daily habits of Iraqis working with coalition from within the Iraqi security services, primarily the Iraqi Police force which is rife with sympathy for the insurgents, Iraqi ministries and from within pro-insurgent individuals working with the CPA’s so-called Green Zone.


The study concluded, “Politically, the U.S. has failed to date. Insurgencies can be fixed or ameliorated by dealing with what caused them in the first place. The disaster that is the reconstruction of Iraq has been the key cause of the insurgency. There is no legitimate government, and it behooves the Coalition Provisional Authority to absorb the sad but unvarnished fact that most Iraqis do not see the Governing Council”—the Iraqi body appointed by the C.P.A.—“as the legitimate authority. Indeed, they know that the true power is the CPA.”

By the fall, a military analyst told me, the extent of the Pentagon’s political and military misjudgments was clear. Donald Rumsfeld’s “dead-enders” now included not only Baathists but many marginal figures as well—thugs and criminals who were among the tens of thousands of prisoners freed the previous fall by Saddam as part of a prewar general amnesty. Their desperation was not driving the insurgency; it simply made them easy recruits for those who were. The analyst said, “We’d killed and captured guys who had been given two or three hundred dollars to ‘pray and spray’”—that is, shoot randomly and hope for the best. “They weren’t really insurgents but down-and-outers who were paid by wealthy individuals sympathetic to the insurgency.” In many cases, the paymasters were Sunnis who had been members of the Baath Party. The analyst said that the insurgents “spent three or four months figuring out how we operated and developing their own countermeasures. If that meant putting up a hapless guy to go and attack a convoy and see how the American troops responded, they’d do it.” Then, the analyst said, “the clever ones began to get in on the action.”

By contrast, according to the military report, the American and Coalition forces knew little about the insurgency: “Human intelligence is poor or lacking . . . due to the dearth of competence and expertise. . . . The intelligence effort is not coördinated since either too many groups are involved in gathering intelligence or the final product does not get to the troops in the field in a timely manner.” The success of the war was at risk; something had to be done to change the dynamic.



The solution, endorsed by Rumsfeld and carried out by Stephen Cambone, was to get tough with those Iraqis in the Army prison system who were suspected of being insurgents. A key player was Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the detention and interrogation center at Guantánamo, who had been summoned to Baghdad in late August to review prison interrogation procedures. The internal Army report on the abuse charges, written by Major General Antonio Taguba in February, revealed that Miller urged that the commanders in Baghdad change policy and place military intelligence in charge of the prison. The report quoted Miller as recommending that “detention operations must act as an enabler for interrogation.”

Miller’s concept, as it emerged in recent Senate hearings, was to “Gitmoize” the prison system in Iraq—to make it more focussed on interrogation. He also briefed military commanders in Iraq on the interrogation methods used in Cuba—methods that could, with special approval, include sleep deprivation, exposure to extremes of cold and heat, and placing prisoners in “stress positions” for agonizing lengths of time. (The Bush Administration had unilaterally declared Al Qaeda and other captured members of international terrorist networks to be illegal combatants, and not eligible for the protection of the Geneva Conventions.)

Rumsfeld and Cambone went a step further, however: they expanded the scope of the sap, bringing its unconventional methods to Abu Ghraib. The commandos were to operate in Iraq as they had in Afghanistan. The male prisoners could be treated roughly, and exposed to sexual humiliation.

“They weren’t getting anything substantive from the detainees in Iraq,” the former intelligence official told me. “No names. Nothing that they could hang their hat on. Cambone says, I’ve got to crack this thing and I’m tired of working through the normal chain of command. I’ve got this apparatus set up—the black special-access program—and I’m going in hot. So he pulls the switch, and the electricity begins flowing last summer. And it’s working. We’re getting a picture of the insurgency in Iraq and the intelligence is flowing into the white world. We’re getting good stuff. But we’ve got more targets”—prisoners in Iraqi jails—“than people who can handle them.”

Cambone then made another crucial decision, the former intelligence official told me: not only would he bring the sap’s rules into the prisons; he would bring some of the Army military-intelligence officers working inside the Iraqi prisons under the sap’s auspices. “So here are fundamentally good soldiers—military-intelligence guys—being told that no rules apply,” the former official, who has extensive knowledge of the special-access programs, added. “And, as far as they’re concerned, this is a covert operation, and it’s to be kept within Defense Department channels.”

The military-police prison guards, the former official said, included “recycled hillbillies from Cumberland, Maryland.” He was referring to members of the 372nd Military Police Company. Seven members of the company are now facing charges for their role in the abuse at Abu Ghraib. “How are these guys from Cumberland going to know anything? The Army Reserve doesn’t know what it’s doing.”

Who was in charge of Abu Ghraib—whether military police or military intelligence—was no longer the only question that mattered. Hard-core special operatives, some of them with aliases, were working in the prison. The military police assigned to guard the prisoners wore uniforms, but many others—military intelligence officers, contract interpreters, C.I.A. officers, and the men from the special-access program—wore civilian clothes. It was not clear who was who, even to Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, then the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, and the officer ostensibly in charge. “I thought most of the civilians there were interpreters, but there were some civilians that I didn’t know,” Karpinski told me. “I called them the disappearing ghosts. I’d seen them once in a while at Abu Ghraib and then I’d see them months later. They were nice—they’d always call out to me and say, ‘Hey, remember me? How are you doing?’” The mysterious civilians, she said, were “always bringing in somebody for interrogation or waiting to collect somebody going out.” Karpinski added that she had no idea who was operating in her prison system. (General Taguba found that Karpinski’s leadership failures contributed to the abuses.)

By fall, according to the former intelligence official, the senior leadership of the C.I.A. had had enough. “They said, ‘No way. We signed up for the core program in Afghanistan—pre-approved for operations against high-value terrorist targets—and now you want to use it for cabdrivers, brothers-in-law, and people pulled off the streets’”—the sort of prisoners who populate the Iraqi jails. “The C.I.A.’s legal people objected,” and the agency ended its sap involvement in Abu Ghraib, the former official said.

The C.I.A.’s complaints were echoed throughout the intelligence community. There was fear that the situation at Abu Ghraib would lead to the exposure of the secret sap, and thereby bring an end to what had been, before Iraq, a valuable cover operation. “This was stupidity,” a government consultant told me. “You’re taking a program that was operating in the chaos of Afghanistan against Al Qaeda, a stateless terror group, and bringing it into a structured, traditional war zone. Sooner or later, the commandos would bump into the legal and moral procedures of a conventional war with an Army of a hundred and thirty-five thousand soldiers.”

The former senior intelligence official blamed hubris for the Abu Ghraib disaster. “There’s nothing more exhilarating for a pissant Pentagon civilian than dealing with an important national security issue without dealing with military planners, who are always worried about risk,” he told me. “What could be more boring than needing the coöperation of logistical planners?” The only difficulty, the former official added, is that, “as soon as you enlarge the secret program beyond the oversight capability of experienced people, you lose control. We’ve never had a case where a special-access program went sour—and this goes back to the Cold War.”

In a separate interview, a Pentagon consultant, who spent much of his career directly involved with special-access programs, spread the blame. “The White House subcontracted this to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon subcontracted it to Cambone,” he said. “This is Cambone’s deal, but Rumsfeld and Myers approved the program.” When it came to the interrogation operation at Abu Ghraib, he said, Rumsfeld left the details to Cambone. Rumsfeld may not be personally culpable, the consultant added, “but he’s responsible for the checks and balances. The issue is that, since 9/11, we’ve changed the rules on how we deal with terrorism, and created conditions where the ends justify the means.”



Last week, statements made by one of the seven accused M.P.s, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who is expected to plead guilty, were released. In them, he claimed that senior commanders in his unit would have stopped the abuse had they witnessed it. One of the questions that will be explored at any trial, however, is why a group of Army Reserve military policemen, most of them from small towns, tormented their prisoners as they did, in a manner that was especially humiliating for Iraqi men.

The notion that Arabs are particularly vulnerable to sexual humiliation became a talking point among pro-war Washington conservatives in the months before the March, 2003, invasion of Iraq. One book that was frequently cited was “The Arab Mind,” a study of Arab culture and psychology, first published in 1973, by Raphael Patai, a cultural anthropologist who taught at, among other universities, Columbia and Princeton, and who died in 1996. The book includes a twenty-five-page chapter on Arabs and sex, depicting sex as a taboo vested with shame and repression. “The segregation of the sexes, the veiling of the women . . . and all the other minute rules that govern and restrict contact between men and women, have the effect of making sex a prime mental preoccupation in the Arab world,” Patai wrote. Homosexual activity, “or any indication of homosexual leanings, as with all other expressions of sexuality, is never given any publicity. These are private affairs and remain in private.” The Patai book, an academic told me, was “the bible of the neocons on Arab behavior.” In their discussions, he said, two themes emerged—“one, that Arabs only understand force and, two, that the biggest weakness of Arabs is shame and humiliation.”

The government consultant said that there may have been a serious goal, in the beginning, behind the sexual humiliation and the posed photographs. It was thought that some prisoners would do anything—including spying on their associates—to avoid dissemination of the shameful photos to family and friends. The government consultant said, “I was told that the purpose of the photographs was to create an army of informants, people you could insert back in the population.” The idea was that they would be motivated by fear of exposure, and gather information about pending insurgency action, the consultant said. If so, it wasn’t effective; the insurgency continued to grow.

“This shit has been brewing for months,” the Pentagon consultant who has dealt with saps told me. “You don’t keep prisoners naked in their cell and then let them get bitten by dogs. This is sick.” The consultant explained that he and his colleagues, all of whom had served for years on active duty in the military, had been appalled by the misuse of Army guard dogs inside Abu Ghraib. “We don’t raise kids to do things like that. When you go after Mullah Omar, that’s one thing. But when you give the authority to kids who don’t know the rules, that’s another.”

In 2003, Rumsfeld’s apparent disregard for the requirements of the Geneva Conventions while carrying out the war on terror had led a group of senior military legal officers from the Judge Advocate General’s (jag) Corps to pay two surprise visits within five months to Scott Horton, who was then chairman of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on International Human Rights. “They wanted us to challenge the Bush Administration about its standards for detentions and interrogation,” Horton told me. “They were urging us to get involved and speak in a very loud voice. It came pretty much out of the blue. The message was that conditions are ripe for abuse, and it’s going to occur.” The military officials were most alarmed about the growing use of civilian contractors in the interrogation process, Horton recalled. “They said there was an atmosphere of legal ambiguity being created as a result of a policy decision at the highest levels in the Pentagon. The jag officers were being cut out of the policy formulation process.” They told him that, with the war on terror, a fifty-year history of exemplary application of the Geneva Conventions had come to an end.



The abuses at Abu Ghraib were exposed on January 13th, when Joseph Darby, a young military policeman assigned to Abu Ghraib, reported the wrongdoing to the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division. He also turned over a CD full of photographs. Within three days, a report made its way to Donald Rumsfeld, who informed President Bush.

The inquiry presented a dilemma for the Pentagon. The C.I.D. had to be allowed to continue, the former intelligence official said. “You can’t cover it up. You have to prosecute these guys for being off the reservation. But how do you prosecute them when they were covered by the special-access program? So you hope that maybe it’ll go away.” The Pentagon’s attitude last January, he said, was “Somebody got caught with some photos. What’s the big deal? Take care of it.” Rumsfeld’s explanation to the White House, the official added, was reassuring: “‘We’ve got a glitch in the program. We’ll prosecute it.’ The cover story was that some kids got out of control.”

In their testimony before Congress last week, Rumsfeld and Cambone struggled to convince the legislators that Miller’s visit to Baghdad in late August had nothing to do with the subsequent abuse. Cambone sought to assure the Senate Armed Services Committee that the interplay between Miller and Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, had only a casual connection to his office. Miller’s recommendations, Cambone said, were made to Sanchez. His own role, he said, was mainly to insure that the “flow of intelligence back to the commands” was “efficient and effective.” He added that Miller’s goal was “to provide a safe, secure and humane environment that supports the expeditious collection of intelligence.”

It was a hard sell. Senator Hillary Clinton, Democrat of New York, posed the essential question facing the senators:

If, indeed, General Miller was sent from Guantánamo to Iraq for the purpose of acquiring more actionable intelligence from detainees, then it is fair to conclude that the actions that are at point here in your report [on abuses at Abu Ghraib] are in some way connected to General Miller’s arrival and his specific orders, however they were interpreted, by those MPs and the military intelligence that were involved.. . .Therefore, I for one don’t believe I yet have adequate information from Mr. Cambone and the Defense Department as to exactly what General Miller’s orders were . . . how he carried out those orders, and the connection between his arrival in the fall of ’03 and the intensity of the abuses that occurred afterward.


Sometime before the Abu Ghraib abuses became public, the former intelligence official told me, Miller was “read in”—that is, briefed—on the special-access operation. In April, Miller returned to Baghdad to assume control of the Iraqi prisons; once the scandal hit, with its glaring headlines, General Sanchez presented him to the American and international media as the general who would clean up the Iraqi prison system and instill respect for the Geneva Conventions. “His job is to save what he can,” the former official said. “He’s there to protect the program while limiting any loss of core capability.” As for Antonio Taguba, the former intelligence official added, “He goes into it not knowing shit. And then: ‘Holy cow! What’s going on?’”

If General Miller had been summoned by Congress to testify, he, like Rumsfeld and Cambone, would not have been able to mention the special-access program. “If you give away the fact that a special-access program exists,”the former intelligence official told me, “you blow the whole quick-reaction program.”

One puzzling aspect of Rumsfeld’s account of his initial reaction to news of the Abu Ghraib investigation was his lack of alarm and lack of curiosity. One factor may have been recent history: there had been many previous complaints of prisoner abuse from organization like Human Rights Watch and the International Red Cross, and the Pentagon had weathered them with ease. Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had not been provided with details of alleged abuses until late March, when he read the specific charges. “You read it, as I say, it’s one thing. You see these photographs and it’s just unbelievable. . . . It wasn’t three-dimensional. It wasn’t video. It wasn’t color. It was quite a different thing.” The former intelligence official said that, in his view, Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials had not studied the photographs because “they thought what was in there was permitted under the rules of engagement,” as applied to the sap. “The photos,” he added, “turned out to be the result of the program run amok.”

The former intelligence official made it clear that he was not alleging that Rumsfeld or General Myers knew that atrocities were committed. But, he said, “it was their permission granted to do the sap, generically, and there was enough ambiguity, which permitted the abuses.”

This official went on, “The black guys”—those in the Pentagon’s secret program—“say we’ve got to accept the prosecution. They’re vaccinated from the reality.” The sap is still active, and “the United States is picking up guys for interrogation. The question is, how do they protect the quick-reaction force without blowing its cover?” The program was protected by the fact that no one on the outside was allowed to know of its existence. “If you even give a hint that you’re aware of a black program that you’re not read into, you lose your clearances,” the former official said. “Nobody will talk. So the only people left to prosecute are those who are undefended—the poor kids at the end of the food chain.”

The most vulnerable senior official is Cambone. “The Pentagon is trying now to protect Cambone, and doesn’t know how to do it,” the former intelligence official said.



Last week, the government consultant, who has close ties to many conservatives, defended the Administration’s continued secrecy about the special-access program in Abu Ghraib. “Why keep it black?” the consultant asked. “Because the process is unpleasant. It’s like making sausage—you like the result but you don’t want to know how it was made. Also, you don’t want the Iraqi public, and the Arab world, to know. Remember, we went to Iraq to democratize the Middle East. The last thing you want to do is let the Arab world know how you treat Arab males in prison.”

The former intelligence official told me he feared that one of the disastrous effects of the prison-abuse scandal would be the undermining of legitimate operations in the war on terror, which had already suffered from the draining of resources into Iraq. He portrayed Abu Ghraib as “a tumor” on the war on terror. He said, “As long as it’s benign and contained, the Pentagon can deal with the photo crisis without jeopardizing the secret program. As soon as it begins to grow, with nobody to diagnose it—it becomes a malignant tumor.”

The Pentagon consultant made a similar point. Cambone and his superiors, the consultant said, “created the conditions that allowed transgressions to take place. And now we’re going to end up with another Church Commission”—the 1975 Senate committee on intelligence, headed by Senator Frank Church, of Idaho, which investigated C.I.A. abuses during the previous two decades. Abu Ghraib had sent the message that the Pentagon leadership was unable to handle its discretionary power. “When the shit hits the fan, as it did on 9/11, how do you push the pedal?” the consultant asked. “You do it selectively and with intelligence.”

“Congress is going to get to the bottom of this,” the Pentagon consultant said. “You have to demonstrate that there are checks and balances in the system.” He added, “When you live in a world of gray zones, you have to have very clear red lines.”

Senator John McCain, of Arizona, said, “If this is true, it certainly increases the dimension of this issue and deserves significant scrutiny. I will do all possible to get to the bottom of this, and all other allegations.”

“In an odd way,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, “the sexual abuses at Abu Ghraib have become a diversion for the prisoner abuse and the violation of the Geneva Conventions that is authorized.” Since September 11th, Roth added, the military has systematically used third-degree techniques around the world on detainees. “Some jags hate this and are horrified that the tolerance of mistreatment will come back and haunt us in the next war,” Roth told me. “We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.”




MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Bush Administration Cuts Clean Water Spending; Hurts Jobs, Health, Environment


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.


This week the Senate is scheduled to take up a bill that calls for reducing spending on clean water programs by almost $500 million – a rollback that could lead to nearly 50,000 lost jobs as well as a rise in sewer overflows, polluted water, and disease outbreaks, according to a new report. [1]


"All Dried Up: Clean Water is Threatened by Budget Cuts," was released this morning by a broad coalition of state and local governments, construction, labor, environmental and public health groups.


The report provides a state-by-state breakdown of lost federal dollars, the number of jobs the lost money would have created, the number of projects at risk of being held up if the cuts go through, and the percentage of waters in each state that are already polluted. It can be found at www.nrdc.org.


The House has already passed a spending bill that includes the $500 million in clean water cuts called for in President Bush’s budget. The cuts come out of the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, which gives money to communities to rehabilitate aging sewer plants and reduce raw sewage overflows and storm water runoff.


The Senate may take up the bill as early as today.


"That Congress would even consider slashing federal funding for communities to help ensure clean water for all Americans is mind-boggling," said Nancy Stoner, clean water director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which is leading the coalition. "This White House repeatedly has pushed for massive cuts in clean water spending, but this is the first time Congress appears willing to go along," she said in a press release.


Cutting federal funding for sewer systems can have serious health implications. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that between 23,000 and 75,000 sewage overflows occur across the country each year, releasing 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater.


Raw sewage can carry e.coli, salmonella, dysentery, hepatitis and other diseases. Every year, millions of Americans get sick from swimming in or drinking water contaminated by these bacteria, viruses and parasites.


There are also financial implications. Clean water programs provide jobs for engineers, contractors, manufacturers, administrators and construction workers. Communities need clean water to attract tourists and maintain recreational uses of their rivers, lakes and beaches.


The report also finds that many communities already have a backlog of projects, such as aging pipes that need replacing, and the need to improve control of wet weather sewage overflows. It cites EPA figures estimating at least $388 billion is needed in communities across the country for new and repaired equipment to meet current clean water infrastructure needs. [2]



###

SOURCES:
[1] NRDC press release, Sep. 14, 2004.
[2] "All Dried Up: Clean Water is Threatened by Budget Cuts," NRDC report.




MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

REPORT SHOWS BUSH NEGLECTING HUNT FOR AL QAEDA


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.


In the months after the 9/11 attacks, President
Bush promised America he
would make the hunt for al Qaeda the number one
objective of his
administration. "[We] do everything we can to chase
[al Qaeda] down and
bring them to justice," Bush said. "That's a key
priority, obviously, for me
and my administration."[1] But according to a new
report, the President has
dangerously underfunded and understaffed the
intelligence unit charged with
tracking down al Qaeda's leader.

The New York Times reports "Three years after the
Sept. 11 attacks on New
York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence
Agency has fewer experienced
case officers assigned to its headquarters unit
dealing with Osama bin Laden
than it did at the time of the attacks." The bin
Laden unit is "stretched so
thin that it relies on inexperienced officers
rotated in and out every 60 to
90 days, and they leave before they know enough to
be able to perform any
meaningful work."[2]

The revelation comes months after the Associated
Press reported the Bush
Treasury Department "has assigned five times as
many agents to investigate
Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama
bin Laden's" financial
infrastructure.[3] It also comes after USA Today
reported that the President
shifted "resources from the bin Laden hunt to the
war in Iraq" in 2002.
Specifically, Bush moved special forces tracking al
Qaeda out of Afghanistan
and into Iraq war preparations. He also left the
CIA "stretched badly in its
capacity to collect, translate and analyze
information coming from
Afghanistan."[4] That has allowed these terrorists
to regroup: according to
the senior intelligence officials in July of this
year, bin Laden and other
top al Qaeda leaders are now directing a plot "to
carry out a large-scale
terror attack against the United States" and are
overseeing the plan "from
their remote hideouts somewhere along the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border."[5]



Sources:

1. "President Calls for Ticket to Independence in
Welfare Reform,"
WhiteHouse.gov, 5/10/02,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55681.
2. "C.I.A. Unit on bin Laden Is Understaffed, a
Senior Official Tells
Lawmakers," New York Times, 9/15/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55682.
3. "More Agents Track Castro Than Bin Laden,"
Common Dreams News Center,
4/29/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55683.
4. "Shifts from bin Laden hunt evoke questions,"
USA Today, 3/28/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55684.
5. "Officials: Bin Laden guiding plots against
U.S.," CNN.com, 7/08/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2460565&l=55685.




MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Nader/Camejo News letter


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

Dear Friend,


From Philly to Athens to East Lansing to Kalamazoo, Ralph has packed auditoriums and ballrooms on a tour of the heartland battleground states this week! Overflow crowds at each stop are demanding that our troops coming home from Iraq, health care for all Americans, and the creation of a living wage are all issues included in the debate this fall.

We need your help to get the message out!

Ralph's extending an online challenge to raise more money over the internet than Nader/Camejo rallies on the road. More than $10,000 is coming in each day from Ralph's campaign stops. Let's show Ralph that the online community supports him as much as the local community does. We'll use this money to buy the plane tickets, rent the cars, and book the halls! Contribute or visit our store today and invite your friends and family to do the same!

We need your help from home NOW to match Ralph on the road!

Ralph's the only one out there punching holes in the other guys' rhetoric. The Bush and Kerry campaigns are wasting the public's time using kid-gloves with each other and ignoring the major issues affecting Americans. In the next seven weeks, the Nader/Camejo Campaign is putting out the call to all Americans with the courage to make their votes extensions of their principles: say NO to the war in Iraq.

It doesn't take a mountain of corporate cash to send a message, but it does require whatever you can spare to meet Ralph's challenge. A little bit from enough concerned citizens can go quite a long way. Nader/Camejo 2004 will champion your issues right up to the bitter end. Take stock. Reflect on how valuable your support has been and will continue to be in this effort. Make the decision to cast your lot—and your vote!—with the only presidential ticket courageous enough to make a responsible withdrawal from Iraq the centerpiece of its platform.

Keep Ralph on the road!

And thanks for contributing.

Jason Kafoury
National Field Coordinator





MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Bush Administration Directs Agencies to Ignore Clean Water Act


"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
&
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
&
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.


Using a back-door route to deregulation, the Bush administration has removed clean water protections for 20 million acres of American wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of streams, lakes and ponds, according to documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act. [1]


The documents, used to produce the report "Reckless Abandon: How the Bush Administration is Exposing America's Waters to Harm," outline the consequences of a 2003 federal policy directive that encourages regulators to routinely avoid enforcing Clean Water Act protections for American rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands unless otherwise directed.


The report was produced by nonprofit environmental groups Earthjustice, the National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra Club. It can be found online at www.cwn.org.


"For the first time in over 30 years of cleaning up our waters, we're going backwards," said Paul Schwartz, national policy coordinator for Clean Water Action. Schwartz noted that after the Clean Water Act took effect in 1972, the percentage of the nation's waters deemed clean enough for fishing and swimming nearly doubled. But recent state reports now show those numbers declining, he said.


"The water is getting dirtier, and the Bush administration is leading one of the most fundamental attacks on a law that has arguably done more to protect the environment and public health than any other environmental law," Schwartz told BushGreenwatch.


On January 15, 2003, the Bush administration published guidelines in the Federal Register directing field staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing protections for millions of acres of wetlands, streams and other waters unless they first obtained permission from national headquarters in Washington, D.C.


The directive further stated that no permission was required to ignore Clean Water Act protections for these waters and that no records would be kept of decisions not to invoke the Clean Water Act.


The directive severely narrowed the types of waterways considered protected under the Clean Water Act to those that were navigable year-round by commercial vessels, a major departure from every previous administration's policies since 1972. [2]


At the same time, the administration announced it would take steps to codify these guidelines through federal rulemaking procedures. It later backed off the rulemaking process in response to a massive public outcry. But the guidelines were left in place and have had the same impact, Schwartz said.


In response, 219 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 senators have signed on to letters to President Bush asking him to rescind the policy directive and restore protections to American waters. A bill has also been introduced in both the House and Senate that would make clear that all waters of the U.S. should fall under the protections of the Clean Water Act. [3]


"The Bush administration's policy is based on the fantasy that if you let polluters dump sewage, oil and other toxic waste into small wetlands and streams, it won't ultimately wind up in our lakes, rivers and coastal waters," said Daniel Rosenberg, an NRDC senior attorney in the group's August 12 press release.



###

SOURCES:
[1] "Reckless Abandon: How the Bush Administration is Exposing America's Waters to Harm," CWN, Aug. 12, 2004.
[2] Federal Register, Jan. 15, 2003; EarthJustice, NRDC, NWF, Sierra Club press release, Aug. 12, 2004.
[3] Clean Water Authority Restoration Act HR 962 and S 473.



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

send comments via Email to me,